THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, you just gotta look a little further to find the monster lurking nearby.
PLOT
Inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, Nosferatu takes place in 1838 Wisborg and follows real estate agent Thomas Hutter get sent to Transylvania by his employer Herr Knock to meet a new client known as Count Orlok. The reason is that the Count wants to buy a home across his own residence. On the way, an inn is frightened to hear where Hutter is going. Upon reaching his castle in the Carpathian Mountains, Orlok invites him to dinner, but his guest cuts his thumb. He almost sucks the blood, but Hutter pulls away. The following day, Hutter finds punctures on his neck that he guesses to have come from mosquitoes. After signing the documents needed to purchase the house he wants, Orlok sees a picture of Hutter’s wife Ellen, which he deems to have a lovely neck. With such suspicious behavior, Hutter suspects Orlok to be a vampire and tries to lock himself in his room before the next midnight. However, the door opens on its own and he falls unconscious while hiding under his bedcovers. Back in Wisborg, Ellen is caught sleepwalking and has a vision of Orlok attacking her husband. The following day, Hutter explores the castle and finds multiple coffins in the crypt where only one is Orlok is sleeping in. Only when it’s too late does he find out the Count is boarding on a schooner with all coffins to Wisborg. As Hutter makes his way home, most of the crewmen would be found dead after finding many rats in other coffins and by then, the count takes control of the ship to reach his destination. Upon arriving to Wisborg, the amount of deaths caused by the vampire are mistaken by the doctors to be a plague from the same rats that were onboard. After the latest death coming from a close death of Ellen’s, she reads the same vampire book her husband read and learns the only way to defeat such a monster is if a pure hearted woman willingly offers her own blood. So she lures him to her home by leaving the windows open and she has Hutter believe she’s ill to the point where he’ll go get physician Professor Bulwer. Just when he approaches her and sucks her blood, he disintegrates due to the exposure to sunlight. Only after this does the film end with Ellen dying in her husband’s arms.
THOUGHTS
Because my preference of silent films are Chaplin related, I can be picky on making time for such an era of filmmaking. However, the popularity of vampires has been so surreal since this film that I had to see where it all started. And with all honesty, I see why it still works over 100 years later. At such a time, Director FW Murnau, writer Henrik Galeen and composer Hans Erdmann are able to create something that lives up to the name that this is a symphony of horror because the tension feels relentless. Everytime we get a taste of the scenery thanks to the eery cinematography, you quickly pick up the fact this is not a pleasant tale. When you follow a character like Thomas, who is well played by Gustav Von Wangenheim, you can pick up the truth this is a guy who starts out timid but is strong enough to not succumb to hysteria. Because he is able to survive the night against Orlok really tells the lesson that we must find restraint when exposed to greed, otherwise we’ll just isolate ourselves from society and become our own worst enemy. That’s definitely the case when basking in the presence of a monster that remains bigger than life. Max Schreck is his own set of terror compared to the legacy made by Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula because he doesn’t really hide how sinister Orlok is and is straightforward hungry for power since blood is his source of immortality. Had he been more cautious like he’d been before meeting Thomas, he would’ve been aware on how much time he had left to pursue another victim. Thankfully, his selfishness got the best of him and ended his plague of terror. Of course, this would’ve not been possible had it not been for a final girl willing to make an essential sacrifice. Greta Schroder was great as Ellen because she lived up to being pure & hearted of a lady that knew a grand threat had to be stopped. She did the right thing in also not telling her husband because he would’ve found a way to stop her. And you can’t blame him because he ain’t gonna bare that loss. Nevertheless when the greater good was committed, Wisborg regained its freedom before it can be a wasteland, proving her sacrifice was not in vein. As much as Thomas hates what had to be done, I’m sure he’ll try to go on with his life in her honor. In short, Nosferatu is a fascinating horror film for letting the motion do its work for you to feel all the tension. If you dig silent films and have an interest in vampires, this is the root to look into.
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